Not only is the mounting U.S. debt causing anxiety at home, one Democratic senator tells ABC News that a group of senators faced an embarrassing reprimand by a Chinese official on a recent Congressional delegation to Asia.
"The most embarrassing moment to me on that trip was when a government official said to me, or said the to the delegation, you guys need to get your fiscal house in order," Sen. Michael Bennet, D-Colo.,said of an April congressional delegation to China that was led by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid. "I felt like being at a shareholder meeting for a corporation and the shareholder is saying you're being irresponsible."
China now owns $1.2 trillion of the $14.3 trillion U.S. debt, according to the Treasury Department.
"Not only do they own a bunch of our debt, but they have a cash surplus which they're using to invest in infrastructure and in natural resources all over the globe," Bennet said. "That's what we are increasingly incapable of doing unless we get this resolved."
Embarrassing or not, Bennet agrees with the Chinese on this issue: The United States needs to act now to get mounting deficits under control.
Here's video of Sen. Bennet -- who voted for the "stimulus," Obamacare, etc., natch -- recounting the humiliating (but deserved) loss of face:
You know, I could swear I've heard about a "radical" plan that could alleviate this problem and avoid future embarrassments like this one. (Quoth Paul Ryan on Newt: "With allies like that, who needs the left?")